Recipe: No-Knead Naan/Flatbread

So last Friday, I talked about Nancy Baggett's "Kneadlessly Simple" cookbook.

And as I said, I've had some great successes with her recipes, but what I really loved about the book is that she explains how to convert conventional bread recipes to the no-knead method. It’s totally cool and empowering to a former bread-killer like myself.

With her explanations I'm proud to say that I've developed my first original bread recipe!  WOOT!

I wanted to make naan, that amazing, soft Indian flatbread that I LOVE. Every time I made curry, I would send Aaron off to the nearby Indian restaurant for fresh naan. And to save the boy’s shoes some wear, I thought, let me try …

I consulted about 8 different recipes, mixed and matched, tweaked and tested … I didn’t want to give you a crappy recipe.

So here it is, most proudly: 

No-Knead Naan/Flatbread

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. canola oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)
1 tsp. coarse salt (or ½ tsp. fine table salt)
1 tsp. white sugar
¼ tsp. dry yeast
¾ cup water

In a medium to large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients with a fork till well blended. Add the water and oil and mix quickly with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mix just till all the ingredients are blended and you have no flour pockets.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 18-24 hours.

Preheat your oven as hot as it will go (in the 500F/260C range).

Take cookie (biscuit) sheet and oil it with ¼ tsp. canola oil. Using a rubber spatula, scrape risen dough onto the cookie sheet. Dough will be very wet and sticky – fear not! Dust the top liberally with flour as well as your hands. Press the dough out to cover the cookie sheet, adding more flour to your hands or the top of the dough as necessary. It should look kind of like this:

Once the dough is flattened out, leave to rest for ½ hour or so (which is how long the oven will need to get good and hot.)

When the oven is ready, put the bread in (on the middle rack) for approximately 7-8 minutes, till “set” but not brown. Take the naan out and at the same time, turn your broiler on.

Flip the naan over with a spatula (it should lift off the cookie sheet very easily) and pop it back in the oven. Now watch it like a hawk. Depending on the strength of your broiler, the naan should brown and blister in 2 to 5 minutes. You want a few dark brown blisters and spots, but not too brown, kind of like this:

 

Take the naan out one more time and give it one last flip to brown the other side. Put it back under the broiler … this will take even less time than the last side – 1 to 3 minutes.

Let it cool a bit once it comes out of the oven, rip it into pieces, spread with soft butter and enjoy!!!

Now, is this THE most authentic recipe in the world?  Of course not, because it wasn't made in a clay (tandoor) oven.  But for being homemade in a regular oven, it's pretty damn good -- good chew, soft, fluffy interior, nicely blistered outside ... and if it's too unlike naan for your tastes, just call it flatbread.  Whatever, it's good!

It's awesome with a curry, with a hunk of cheese … whatever you like … and in fact, it's great as a wrap/sandwich bread thing.  Here it is open-faced, topped with chicken, avocado, feta and peppadew peppers.

Best lunch I've had in a while!

 Buen Provecho!